Beyond Layoff

A campaign launched by the Government of India is asking Indians to " Share Vaccination Photos of Anyone in your Family including yourself along with a Tagline to Get Rewarded "  According to the campaign posted on  mygov.in ,  With the vaccination of the Hon’ble Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on 1st March 2021, millions of eligible citizens have been energized and have come forward to register for vaccination. If you/a family member have also got vaccinated, share a picture of the vaccination with us along with a good tagline on the importance of getting vaccinated & inspire the world! 10 best entries will be awarded with Rs. 5000 every month. Note: A. Share a picture of vaccination along with a good tagline B. While vaccination, COVID appropriate protocol of wearing a mask should be followed Details of the campaign were also tweeted recently from @mygovindia· Recently took the #COVIDVaccine ? Here's your chance to inspire millions to get #vaccinated too! Sh...

The Kumbh Mela at Haridwar is a mela (religious festival) held every 12 years at Haridwar, India. The Kumbh mela sees a daily average of over three hundred thousand devotees at the various ghats (river banks) in Haridwar, but that number is expected to swell during the shahi snans on April 12, 14 and 27. This year, officials are especially concerned about the impact of ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. They are exploring hi-tech options to monitor the teeming masses including Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled cameras.     Officials said over 350 CCTV cameras have been installed at different locations in the mela area, with about 100 of these equipped with sensors that generate an alert when the camera captures the image of a person without a mask. These AI-equipped cameras also generate an alert when sites identified as vulnerable for stampede at Har-ki-Pauri, Subhash ghat, Brahmakund, Malviya Dweep and other areas that see a higher crowd density. The cameras are al...

Most people think Covid-19 vaccines are a silver bullet against the novel coronavirus. Not so, say hospitals, where healthcare workers and other personnel have been contracting Covid-19 after receiving the second dose. This was the case at the Bengaluru Medical College and Research Institute (BMCRI) which has found over a dozen positive cases among MBBS students on the campus despite being inoculated with the second dose, according to Dr Smitha Segu, nodal officer. “None of the index cases had a travel history. They were tested after they developed symptoms. Subsequent testing of other students at the BMCRI hostel found 13 positive cases. Some of the students had recently been vaccinated,” she said, adding that all positive students are currently under isolation in separate hostel rooms. Another official said cases have been found in other medical colleges. “Some colleges have reported between 10 and 12 cases,” the source said, cautioning that the infection was spreading from medical s...

103 people from an apartment in Bommanahalli in Bengaluru (India) tested positive for Covid-19 after a recent party in the complex. According to media reports, a party was held at the SNN Lake View apartment on February 4 and it was attended by most of the apartment residents. Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Commissioner N Manjunath Prasad confirmed to the media that 103 people out of 1,052 residents of the apartment tested positive. “We have tested 1,052 residents of the apartment; one person is admitted in the hospital and others are in quarantine. The BBMP had put in place various measures, including isolating and quarantining those who had tested positive and we have intensified contact tracing,” Prasad said. The BBMP has also sent samples to the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro-Sciences(NIMHANS) to find the variant of the virus. “The Samples have been collected and sent for genome sequencing to the NIMHANS laboratory to ascertain the virus variant,” he said,...

India recorded its highest single-day total of new coronavirus cases Sunday with 78,761 new cases. The new total gives the country more than 3.5 million new cases. India, which has reported more than 75,000 new infectious four days in a row, has the fastest-growing daily caseload of any country, according to The Associated Preess . The surge raised India’s tally to over 3.5 million, and came as the government announced the reopening of the subway in New Delhi, the capital. It also will move ahead with limited sports and religious events next month. A country of 1.4 billion people, India now has the fastest-growing daily coronavirus caseload of any country in the world, reporting more than 75,000 new cases for four straight days. In the meantime, however, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has pushed for normal life to resume in the nation. India’s central government announced the New Delhi subway will begin the reopening process Sept. 7, although schools, universities and movie theaters will...

A recent news story highlighted how passengers clapped as an ‘Airline Karen’ was kicked off flight for refusing to wear face mask Now comes news that another woman was caught on camera becoming irate at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport on Wednesday after she refused to wear a mask while on a flight. According to American Airlines, 47-year-old Yolanda Yarbrough was on Flight 2027 from Los Angeles to Phoenix, but she wouldn't wear a mask while in the air, which is a mandatory policy for the airliner. After landing in Phoenix, an Airline employee told her that she couldn't get onto her connecting flight to Las Vegas because she wouldn't wear a mask.  Police said Yarbrough got furious and struck the employee in the face with her hand. The worker was not hurt. Officers arrived and arrested Yarbrough, who was then booked into jail on an assault charge. Yarbrough was banned from flying on American "pending further investigation," the  American Airlines said. Ot...

The recent COVID headlines have brought a slew of Karen stories and memes like this recent one  Video of ‘Costco Karen’ Goes Viral after she throws a temper Tantrum when asked to Wear Face Mask    A recent New York Times feature, "A Brief History of ‘Karen’  examines the recent phinomina of a moniker that has morphed into a symbol of racism and white privilege. The features explains that in 1965, it was the third-most-popular baby name in the United States. In 2018, it was the 635th — and today it’s even less popular. How did Karens fall so far? The NYT writer muses  Karen” now roams restaurants and stores, often without a mask during this coronavirus era, spewing venom and calling the authorities to tattle, usually on people of color and often putting them in dangerous situations. And while this archetype had previously been called “Permit Patty” or “BBQ Becky,” “Karen” has stuck.   In another NYT feature, Philip Galanes muses "I try not to ...

Amid surge in Covid-19 cases, Health Minister of the Indian state of Karnataka, B Sriramulu, on Wednesday expressed helplessness saying "only a God can save us."   Speaking to reporters in hi-tech capital Bengaluru (Bangalore), the minister was quoted saying, "The Covid-19 cases are proliferating rapidly. The situation is getting out of hand. Only God can save us." Responding to the allegations by the opposition party, Congress, about  financial anomalies in procuring medical equipment and safety gears, the Health minister said, "The virus is spreading fast. In such situation the Congress is indulging in cheap politics. The government is ready to face the consequences of its actions. But the Congress must stop making wild and baseless allegations"  Sriramulu said the Ayush and MBBS doctors should not strike work in crisis situation, "The government is ready to discuss their demands. A few private hospitals are bringing a bad repute to a...

India’s largest IT employer, Tata Consultancy Services ( TCS ) plans to to significantly reduce the amount of time its employees spend in office in the next five years. By 2025, TCS will ask a vast majority of 75% of its nearly half-million  employees globally (including 350,000 in India) to work from home. Before lockdown, 20 percent of TCS workforce worked from home, now due to the lockdown the company moved 90 percent of the teams to work from home through its Secure Borderless Work Spaces (SBWS) operating model. The new model called 25/25 will require far less office space than occupied today. "We don't believe that we need more than 25% of our workforce at our facilities in order to be 100% productive," says TCS's chief operating officer NG Subramaniam. "We have come out stronger and our model is more proven than ever before," CEO and MD Rajesh Gopinathan told employees in a letter. As per Gopinathan, SBWS had seen 35,000 meetings, 406,000 calls, a...